No refrigeration needed ground beef

['tiredTeacher]

This is for those times you don't want fresh meat in your cooler, e.g. long trips, limited cooler space, keeping blood off your beer cans.

Fry ground beef, finely chopped onion and/or garlic until the beef is browned. Drain and dry between paper towels to remove all fat.
Place in a dehydrator until totally dried.
Put into doubled zip-lock-type storage bags.
Rehydrate in enough boiling water just to cover and use in sauces, tacos, sloppy joes, etc. It will keep unrefrigerated for weeks and a darn long time in a freezer.

[beacher]

Mmmmm, burger jerky.  This is an old backpacker's trick.  In the Scouts we learned to simply use foil on a cookie sheet in your oven set at about 110 degrees for a few hours.  Before the common plastic dehydrators were available.

[vjm1639]

Yep...we used to dehydrate all sorts of things back when we backpacked into primative cabins for vacations.   Hmmm...maybe I should do it again....we sure ate well then and it took much less time.

[PattieAM]

Funny you should mention this.

A few years ago I bought several packages of the ground beef in packages that don't require refrigeration - (Walmart I think), and used them when camping - made sloppy joes, chili and taco's if I remember correctly - was very pleased.

[MJohn]

This is for those times you don't want fresh meat in your cooler, e.g. long trips, limited cooler space, keeping blood off your beer cans.

Fry ground beef, finely chopped onion and/or garlic until the beef is browned. Drain and dry between paper towels to remove all fat.
Place in a dehydrator until totally dried.
Put into doubled zip-lock-type storage bags.
Rehydrate in enough boiling water just to cover and use in sauces, tacos, sloppy joes, etc. It will keep unrefrigerated for weeks and a darn long time in a freezer.

I learn something new everyday.
Had no idea you could dehydrate ground beef/meat.
Never heard of dehydrating anything much but fruit.
I'll bet this is lighter weight and compact to carry as well.
I hate carrying food that needs refrigeration on a long trip and this is
def news I will use!

                                           Thankx! MJ
2005 Ford Freestar
2007 Fleetwood Westlake :book:

[nineoaks2004]

I used  to  teach a course on dehydrating, the very best way if to cook the meal at home, (ie: chili, spaghetti , beef stew etc) then dehydrate it at camp. The trick is use only the leanest meat you can find, then brown the meat, run and place in a colendar, run or pour very hot water over it to remove the grease, then dry between paper towels, and put it in and cook the rest of the meal, I still have the course materials for dehydrating and a dutch oven  doc. if anyone wants it I can e-mail them , they are in MS word (.doc) format.
my e-mail nineoaks2004@embarqmail.com ("nineoaks2004@embarqmail.com")

[McCampers]

Or you could just leave the hamburger out of the cooler and let it turn green and smelly.  It probably wouldn't taste as good, but just think of all the energy you would save not dehydrating it!  Just kidding.  This is actually a great idea.  I would recommend using a very lean groudbeef.  You have to be very careful dehydrating things with tallow in them.  They can go bad easily and cause very severe food poisoning.